Book Review: "Henry VIII: A Quest for Fame" by John Guy

As you already know, or should know, by now - I'm reading one book about every single king and queen of England since Edward the Confessor. So far, I have read books about: Edward the Confessor, Harold Godwinson, William the Conqueror, William II (William Rufus), Henry I, Stephen, Matilda, Henry II, Richard I, John, Henry III, Edward I, Edward II, Edward III, Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI, Edward IV, Richard III, Henry VII and now we are moving on to one of the most controversial kings in English History, a man who was said to be just absolutely evil - the infamous Henry VIII in this book by John Guy aptly subtitled A Quest for Fame. I think John Guy is one of the most knowledgable people on the crown of England, especially during the Tudor era and in my teen years, I had really enjoyed My Heart is My Own - a book he wrote about Mary, Queen of Scots.

The book starts off with when and where Henry VIII was born and what his father, the King - Henry VII, was like when his son came into the world. John Guy updates us on all of the family history, especially the famed Wars of the Roses, and gets us to where we are now: 28th June, 1491 - the day Henry VIII is born. John Guy then goes through what it was like for Henry VIII to be the second son and how he was treated differently to his older brother because his older brother was being trained to be king one day. I don't know whether I liked the idea of the three-year-old Henry VIII being paraded through London because of the Perkin Warbeck conspiracy that he claimed he was the rightful Duke of York and so Henry VII had his own baby son knighted to prove Warbeck was lying. Why drag the toddler into this? The chapter is aptly named Shaping a Life and was possibly my favourite chapter in the book because it tells us all about why Henry VIII turns out the way he does.

The chapter Arbiter of Christendom was my second favourite chapter because it deals with Henry VIII revising his statements on theology he had made in the past and revisiting the ideas he had once voiced about the church and state in England. Obviously, we know how this story ends already but it was really interesting to read a simplified version of it. I mean, I studied this in history at school a couple of times and I have never actually read it so simply written. If I had read this book whilst in school, things would have been a whole lot easier (nervous laughter).

John Guy is a seminal historian and honestly, I have always adored his writing style. He makes everything in history deeply entertaining and yet, very understandable. I highly recommend his book My Heart is My Own because of the fact it's just brilliantly written and, of course, it's about Mary, Queen of Scots. What is not to like?

In conclusion, I thought that this book was one of the better ones out of all I have read in this series so far and really, I think John Guy should write more of these particular books (for the Penguin Monarchs series, or for Routledge History or something). The sheer quality of this book and its conciseness is brilliant, he makes history actually seem interesting without all the weird political and archaic jargon that litters other texts by other writers (and I'm not naming names but you know damn well who they are). All in all, John Guy is one of the better historians to read.